African Americans

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Wealthy Blacks Say Class No Barrier to Racial Profiling

(Newser) - Money, power, and status count for little in the face of persistent racial profiling by police, African-American men tell the Los Angeles Times. Many say they know all too well how Henry Louis Gates Jr. must have felt in his home last week. The consensus generally seems to be that...

Gates, Cambridge Cop: Sure, We'll Have That Beer

(Newser) - Henry Louis Gates Jr. and the Cambridge cop who arrested him both say they will take up President Obama on his offer to have a beer at the White House. "It is time for all of us to move on, and to assess what we can learn from this...

Black, Gay Lit Trailblazer E. Lynn Harris Dead at 54

(Newser) - Author E. Lynn Harris, who offered a glimpse into the secret lives of closeted gay black men, died last night at 54, the AP reports. His publicist says the cause is unknown, and that Harris suddenly took ill just days ago. An autopsy will be performed next week. Harris was...

Obama Regrets 'Acted Stupidly' Jab at Cops
Obama Regrets 'Acted Stupidly' Jab at Cops
UPDATED
Jul 24, 2009 2:42 PM CDT

Obama Regrets 'Acted Stupidly' Jab at Cops

Prez: I could have 'calibrated' remarks on Gates arrest differently

(Newser) - President Obama today backpedaled from his comment that the Massachusetts police who arrested Henry Louis Gates Jr. “acted stupidly,” the New York Times reports. In an unannounced appearance at the daily White House briefing, Obama said he “could have calibrated” his words more carefully in speaking on...

On Race Issues, Meet the Real Obama

(Newser) - The Gates controversy might finally change—for the better—the way the media portray President Obama on race issues, writes Brent Staples in the New York Times. "Up to now, he has been consistently and wrongly portrayed as a stern black exceptionalist who takes Negroes to task for not...

Cop Who Arrested Gates Teaches Racial-Profiling Class

Sgt. James Crowley's class instructs recruits not to 'single people out because of ethnic background'

(Newser) - The white police sergeant criticized by President Barack Obama for arresting black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. at his Massachusetts home is a police-academy expert on racial profiling. Cambridge Sgt. James Crowley has taught a class on racial profiling for 5 years at the Lowell Police Academy after being hand-picked...

Angry Gates to Make Film on Racial Profiling

Harvard prof. inspired by recent brush with the law

(Newser) - After his up-close and personal look at the criminal justice system, Henry Louis Gates Jr. intends to tackle the issue of racial profiling in a documentary for PBS, the Harvard scholar tells the Washington Post. "It had never crossed my mind but it has now," says Gates, who...

Lawyer: Harvard Prof. Busted After Demanding Cop ID

(Newser) - African-American Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. was hauled into custody after repeatedly asking a police officer for his badge number, Prof. Charles Ogletree writes in the Root. Gates forced open his front door after arriving home from a foreign trip to find it damaged. When a police officer arrived...

Harvard Scholar Arrested at Mass. Home

'This is what happens to black men in America': Gates to cop

(Newser) - A prominent Harvard scholar was arrested last week outside his Cambridge, Mass., home and charged with disorderly conduct after “exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior,” the Harvard Crimson reports. Henry Louis Gates, a renowned professor of African-American studies, was trying to get into the locked house when a neighbor...

Obama: 'No Excuses' for Black Kids in US

(Newser) - President Obama made his most direct appeal yet to black America with a rousing speech that sounded more like a sermon, the New York Times reports. Addressing the NAACP on its 100th anniversary, Obama said the "pain of discrimination" still exists in America, but he told black parents they...

Stimulus Cash Isn't Making It to Hard-Hit Minorities

African-Americans, Hispanics pummeled by recession

(Newser) - With unemployment at 14.7% among African Americans and 12.2% among Hispanics, the recession is hitting minority communities particularly hard. But as is often the case with so-called “colorblind” spending, stimulus funds, intended to be equal-opportunity, aren’t making it to these groups. The government must “start...

Obama: Slavery Monument 'Place of Profound Sadness'

(Newser) - President Obama toured the Cape Coast Castle in Ghana today, a shipping-off point for African slaves to America, Reuters reports. He saw the monument as a reminder. “As painful as it is,” the president said, “I think that it helps to teach all of us that we...

Why Do Black People Like Michael Jackson?: O'Reilly

(Newser) - Bill O’Reilly can’t figure out why African Americans would care about Michael Jackson’s death. “Michael Jackson has white children, and he chose to have white children,” he said on his show last night. “And the face deal, I don’t even want to get...

Jim Brown 'Dead Wrong' for Dissing Tiger

(Newser) - NFL Hall of Famer and activist Jim Brown recently ripped Tiger Woods for not giving back to his community, and that’s just "dead wrong," Michael Wilbon writes in the Washington Post. Brown seems to think Woods' Learning Center in Anaheim exists to teach kids how to golf....

LA Latinos Are Gay Marriage Wild Card: Poll

(Newser) - A new Los Angeles Times poll shows why gay marriage advocates and opponents are targeting LA Latinos after Proposition 8: Unlike African Americans, they are divided on the issue. While African American voters oppose gay marriage by 54% to 37%, Latinos are split, 45% in favor and 46% against....

Senate Apologizes for Slavery
 Senate Apologizes for Slavery 
Jun 18, 2009 1:45 PM CDT

Senate Apologizes for Slavery

(Newser) - The Senate today apologized for slavery and civil rights abuses against African-Americans, CNN reports. The unanimous gesture—it comes on the eve of Juneteenth, which marks the end of the Civil War—carries a disclaimer that it's not meant to authorize reparations, notes the Chicago Tribune. The House will vote...

US Gets Its First Black Female Rabbi

'I will not be boxed in,' says newly ordained Stanton

(Newser) - Last week Alysa Stanton was ordained as a rabbi at the Plum Street Temple in Cincinnati, one of the country's oldest synagogues, and a little history was made—the US had its first black female leader of a Jewish congregation. Stanton, born a Pentecostal Christian, converted in 1987, enduring hostility...

Sharpton's Odd New Role: Ally of White House

(Newser) - Don't look now, but Al Sharpton is emerging as one of President Obama's go-to guys on race. Given that Obama is the candidate who supposedly transcended racial politics and Sharpton is the character who "perfected" them, it just may be the "oddest political pairing of the year,"...

Obama Picks Ex-Astronaut as NASA Chief

Bolden would be first African-American to lead agency

(Newser) - President Obama will name former astronaut Charles Bolden Jr. as his NASA administrator soon after the Atlantis shuttle returns to Earth this weekend, sources tell the Los Angeles Times. Bolden, a military aviator who flew four shuttle missions, will be the first African-American to lead NASA if he is confirmed...

Foreclosure Crisis Wallops Minority Neighborhoods

Lenders accused of 'redlining' black neighborhoods for subprime loans

(Newser) - The national foreclosure crisis is battering minority neighborhoods with disproportionate force, the New York Times reports. Few areas in the New York region have been untouched by the crisis, but 85% of the worst-hit neighborhoods have a majority of black and Latino homeowners. Experts blame the trend on subprime lenders'...

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